The risk of hurricane in Florida increases. Home insurance is more difficult to obtain.

But the risk of hurricane in Florida increases as the climate change caused by humans warms the atmosphere and increases the temperatures of the sea surface in the Gulf of Mexico. The warmer conditions imprison humidity and fuel the intensification of hurricanes, creating more humid and more powerful hurricanes which leave the Florida increasingly vulnerable to damage caused by the storm. During Hurricane Helene, humidity trapped in the warming atmosphere increase Extreme precipitation of 10%, providing precipitation totals up to 26.95 inches in certain parts of Florida.

Jeremy Porter, an expert in climate risk at First Street Foundation, said that the increase in insurance costs signals the deep impact of climate change in western Florida, while communities like Fort Myers Beach are faced with recurrent damage and costly recovery.

“In recent decades, we have not followed the climate risk and have quantified it correctly in our risk modeling. Now we are playing catching up and this leads to insurance rates very quickly, and people feel that in their cleaning budgets,” said wearing.

With rare options for home insurance, more and more Floridians have started to buy insurance from Citizens Insurance Property Corp., non -profit insurer of Florida, and Porter says that this rapid movement has also increased insurance costs.

By 2055, Porter says that home insurance premiums could increase by 213% in the metropolitan region of Tampa due to the risk of hurricane. Climate risks also disrupt insurance markets in other parts of the country. In Sacramento, California, residents can cope with an increase of 137% due to the increase in the danger of forest fires, for example.

Porter said that the drop in prices for houses in Florida could also affect home insurance rates and availability. When the values of the properties fall in places which are Vulnerable to hurricanes or other extreme weather conditions, insurers can interpret this decrease as a sign of physical risk or increasing market, leading to an increased examination during the subscription and potential bonuses.

According to Zillow Data, the values of the houses in Fort Myers Beach are dropped by around $ 200,000 in their pre-Acts prices, and around 86% of sales in the past year were under the price of the list, a general panel that the sellers have trouble unloading their properties.

At its peak before Hurricane Ian, the average value of the house on the island of Sanibel, a popular place in the County of Lee for beach vacationers, was nearly $ 1.3 million. Today, this value is $ 868,000, with 93% of all houses sold under the price of the list, according to Zillow.

Joanne Klempner, who has lived part -time in Fort Myers Beach since 2016, says that the sale of his house is not a financially viable option after spending so much in reconstruction after Hurricane Ian. With other choices than to stay in Fort Myers Beach, Klempner said that she was worried about the way climate change will affect the future of his community.

“At this point, we are long -term because we must be. I think that if people want to continue investing in Fort Myers beach is the biggest question,” Klempner said. “When you have not been a hurricane for 30 years, the risk seems to have the trouble to live in paradise. When you have three bad hurricanes in the 18 months, it becomes questionable.”

Jacki Liszak, president and chief executive officer of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, says that Fort Myers Beach is always an ideal place to live and visit, and that the community invests in resilient architecture and the construction of houses well above the flood line.

“The houses must be strong and they must be built high,” said Liszak. “I think it will help a lot. People were already starting to come, and I think they will continue to come. People love this lifestyle. It’s a beautiful part of the world. “